lantus glargine insulin

Have you heard 3 out of 4 studies cause cancer. Studies are being conducted in Germany. 5 units was 9% and 25 units was 30% to cause cancer. They say keep taking it because it would be worst to not taking insulin.

13 replies

I have not heard of Lantus causing cancer. I have been taking it for 6 years now and using it along with Humalog seems to be the best combination of drugs that we have found works for me. I guess I would rather take the insulin and suffer the long term effects than not taking it and being sicker sooner! And these days what DOESN'T cause cancer?

No, it was just a message in my mail box under the "Notifications" heading. It came from Member Services. Maybe you should check your inbox and see if you have one as well. I had read something about it a few days ago but didn't keep track of where I read it. Sorry.

Nothing has been proven and it's not being lab tested. The claims are based on metadata studies so the people involved didn't study anything directly, just analyzed a bunch of existing data in a way that a lot of experts find flawed. The FDA is not convinced enough to do anything, experts and expert organizations do not back the findings. One of the experts leading the analysis of the study said "The nature of these limitations and their potential magnitude are such that, individually or in aggregate, these studies provide inconsistent and inconclusive results which do not justify new clinical recommendations to patients,"

the main thing to remember is that in the study that showed a slight increase in cancer cases in lantus users and each individual study that made that one up, it was never once shown that lantus was the cause.

"Of the four studies published, the one that first prompted concern was conducted on 127,000 insulin-treated patients from a German insurance database. Researchers found that one additional person out of every 100 who used Lantus for an average of 1 1/2 years compared with human insulin was found to have cancer compared with those using human insulin. The higher the dose of Lantus used, the greater the risk of cancer, they said."

"But results from three other studies, conducted in Sweden, Scotland and the U.K., were mixed. One also found a positive link while the other two showed no statistically significant link."

It looks as if there's enough of a concern to look further. But it certainly isn't anywhere near the risk that the numbers you reported would indicate.

I guess that makes me lucky. They started me on Lantus and I swelled up like a balloon. I'm allergic to the stuff. Back to Novalog 70/30 and Novalin.

Doc tried me on Byetta along with the 2 Novas as I am very out of control and he was hoping that would level out the highs and lows. It did but the insurance wouldn't cover it as my A1C was to good. To bad about averages, I guess.